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HISTOEICAL DESCRIPTION 



OF THE 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 

OP THE 

ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 
OF NEW-YORK 

HbopteO December I, 1892 



US 



NEW-YORK 

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY 

1893 






Gift 

*^«. Julian Jatnea 

1812 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

This report, printed by order of the St. Nicholas Society, 
is intended simply to show the appropriateness of the his- 
toric edifices, views, and coats of arms of the city of New- 
York, as illustrations of the Certificate of Membership, or 
Diploma, of the Society. It is not to be taken as a history 
of the subjects of these illustrations, but merely as a brief 
outline of their origin and objects. For the facts, dates, 
and statements quoted, the official records of the city it- 
seK, which were personally examined, are the authority. 
The photographic view of the City Hall, as it exists at 
present, in 1893, appended to this report, was taken for the 
Society, by direction of the Board of Officers, to preserve 
for the future the exact appearance of that edifice before 
it shall be removed, pursuant to the decision of the Corpo- 
ration of New- York, to erect a larger City Hall upon its 
site, arrived at since this report was made and adopted. 

Edward Floyd de Lancey. 



u 



EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF 
DECEMBER 1, 1892. 

The Special Committee on Certificate of Membership, 
through their Chairman, Mr. Edward F. de Lancey, pre- 
sented their report, and also the design of the certificate, 
handsomely framed. 

On motion of Mr. Smith E. Lane, duly seconded, it was 
Resolved: 1. That the report of the Committee on 
Certificate be received and placed on file. 

2. That the design for the new Certificate of Member- 
ship, as reported by the Committee on Certificate, be 
accepted and adopted. 

3. That the Committee on Certificate be continued, and 
they are hereby authorized and empowered to have exe- 
cuted one thousand copies of the certificate for the use of 
the Society upon the terms reported by them. 

4. That when the printing shall be completed the de- 
sign of the new certificate shall be placed on file in the 
archives of the Society. 

On motion of Mr. Edward King, it was 

Resolved: That the report be spread upon the Minutes, 
and that the Secretary be authorized to print the same 
and send a copy to each member of the Society. 

George G. De Witt, 
Secretary. 





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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 



The special committee to whom were re- 
ferred the resokitions of the Society at its 
meeting on March 3, 1892, relating to a new 
Certificate of Membership, or Diploma, re- 
spectfully 

That in accordance with their communication 
to the Society at its meeting in June last, — 
that they had unanimously agreed upon the 
form, subjects, and style of a new design, — 
they have had that design fully completed 
in colors, and herewith present the original 
drawing for the consideration and action of 
the Society. 

IB 7 



8 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

As many members were not present at the 
June meeting, the reasons for the change from 
the old diploma are restated. 

The blank impressions of the old certificate 
had long been exhausted. In preparing a new 
one, it was deemed proper to correct some 
defects, and one great error, which existed in 
the old one, and which forbade its absolute 
reproduction. The true date of the organiza- 
tion of the Society is the 28th of February, 
1835, while that, in Roman numerals, on the 
face of the old certificate is the 23d of Feb- 
ruary, 1835. This grave error has not been 
generally known, and the mention of it will 
strike most of the membership with surprise. 

The spaces left for dates, names of, officers, 
and the name of the individual member, on the 
face of the old certificate, were found to be 
much too small for their respective purposes. 

The representations of the "Stadt-Huys" 
of New Amsterdam, and the second City 
Hall, — the English one, — were both very in- 
correct; the former not being the oldest and 
best view extant, and the latter not being the 
real edifice as it was erected in 1700, but as it 
was altered in 1789 to accommodate the first 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBEBSHIP » 

Congress of the United States on its organiza- 
tion in that year, after which, while occupied 
by Congress, it was known as "Federal Hall." 
Its site is now occupied by the handsome 
Doric white marble United States Sub-Treas- 
my Building, at the corner of Wall and Nassau 
Streets, facing down Broad Street. 

The view of New Amsterdam at the bottom 
of the old diploma was not the earliest and 
best view of the old Dutch city, but a very 
much later and vastly inferior one. 

Then, too, on the old diploma were depicted 
two scenes which never existed, — a grave error 
in an historic document, — one termed "The 
Landing of Hendrick Hudson," and the other 
called "New Amsterdam in 1613-14." 

The great navigator, according to the jour- 
nal of his voyage, never landed on Manhattan 
Island, nor in its vicinity; and the earhest 
view ever taken of New Amsterdam was not 
taken in 1613-14, but about the year 1650, by 
Augustine Heermans. These two purely im- 
aginary scenes were deemed utterly inappro- 
priate for a Certificate of Membership of this 
Society. 

For these reasons your committee decided 



10 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

to prepare and submit an entirely new design 
for a diploma, but retaining the style of the 
minor ornamentation of the old one, which 
new design is now before you. 

This design represents an open parchment 
scroll, bearing on its face, in rich antique 
letters illuminated in brilliant colors, the 
name of the Society in full, the operative words 
conferring membership, sufficient spaces for 
names and dates, and attached to it at its right- 
hand corner by a silken cord plaited in three 
colors, the seal of the Society impressed in 
gold. 

Surrounding the scroll, three below and six 
above it, are compartments, or panels, sepa- 
rated from each other by mediaeval orna- 
mentation in gold, orange, white, and blue. 
Within these compartments, or panels, are 
views in hght tints of the civic edifices and 
historic places of Old New- York, and the coats 
of arms, in their true heraldic colors, or 
tinctures, as granted to the city by its Dutch 
and Enghsh rulers, and borne during its three 
eras — Dutch, Enghsh, and American. 

At the left of the scroll overlooking all, un- 
der a Gothic canopy reheved in gold, stands 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP H 

St. Nicliolas in his robes, Ms mitre upon his 
head, his crosier in his hands, and clustering 
at his feet the httle children he loved so well. 

Brief notices of the edifices, places, and 
arms represented may be of interest as show- 
ing their appropriateness for a diploma of a 
Society exclusively composed, and ever to be 
exclusively composed, of the descendants of 
the ancient people of New- York, who therein 
dwelt from generation to generation during 
the two centuries preceding our own, now so 
near its close. 

In the centre and largest of the three com- 
partments below the parchment scroll is seen 
the first and best view of New Amsterdam. 
It is reproduced of the exact size of the origi- 
nal copperplate in Van der Donck's famous 
work on New Netherland, printed in old Am- 
sterdam in 1656. It was taken by Augustine 
Heermans about 1650. This is not the view 
of the Fort as it appeared in 1651, in a work 
pubhshed in that year in Holland, entitled "A 
Description of Virginia, New Netherland, New 
England, and certain Islands in the West 
Indies," but is the first view of the Citt/. It 
did not accompany the first edition of Van 

ic 



12 



ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 



der Donck's New Netherland, issued in 1655, 
although the view of the Fort did ; but in the 
second edition, that of 1656, it appears finely 
engraved upon copper at the foot of a general 
map of New Netherland. 

In the compartment on its left, beneath the 
figure of St. Nicholas, is a view of the building 
in which this Society was born, — "Washington 
Hall," — where it Vas organized by our honored 
predecessors, on the 28th day of February, 
1835. 

One only of those distinguished sons of New- 
York and St. Nicholas survives to this day — in 
a green and happy old age, in full possession 
of his mental powers, beloved and reverenced 
by three generations of children and friends — 
the Honorable Hamilton Fish, successively 
Governor and Senator, of, and from. New- York, 
and Secretary of State of the United States; 
who was the secretary of the first meeting in 
this building, and long the Secretary, and later 
the President, of this Society. Another gentle- 
man too survives, who, though not present at 
the organization, became a member during 
the first year of the Society's existence — our 
honored friend, Alexander J. Cotheal. 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBEBSHIP 13 

Washington Hall was long one of the prom- 
inent hotels of this city. It was built in 1809 
by a political organization called the "Washing- 
ton Benevolent Society," organized on the 4th 
July, 1808, to support Federal views in opposi- 
tion to the "Tammany Society, or Columbian 
Order," which maintained Democratic-Repub- 
lican principles. After some years it was 
changed into a hotel, and at the time of the 
organization of this Society within its walls, 
it was kept by James Ward. It stood on 
the southeast corner of Broadway and Reade 
Street, occupying about half the block on 
Broadway between Reade and Chambers 
Streets. It remained till 1844, when it was 
bought by the late Alexander T. Stewart to 
complete the front on Broadway of the great 
commercial edifice he then projected and 
erected, which was the very first of the 
gigantic stores and warehouses of New -York, 
now, however, a huge office-building. 

In the compartment, or panel, on the right 
of the picture of New Amsterdam, is seen that 
historic place, the Bowling-Green. The view 
is taken from the site of old Fort George, 
looking north, up Broadway, and shows it as 



14 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

it was in 1835, with the old colonial Kennedy, 
Watts, Livingston, and Van Cortlandt houses 
on its west side ; and the Adelphi Hotel, bnilt 
in 1827, at the northeast corner of Beaver 
Street on the east side. It is the one his- 
toric spot in New- York which has never been 
encroached upon since the foundation of the 
city up to this day. The Bowhng-Green 
was originally an open space before the Fort, 
which overlooked it from the south, in the 
Dutch, in the Enghsh, and in the early Ameri- 
can periods. It was the heart of New Amster- 
dam and New -York. 

It has been, with the adjacent Fort and 
Battery, both of which opened upon it from 
their landward sides, the theatre of more im- 
portant events, Dutch, English, and American, 
than any other locality in the city, since that 
bright September day in 1609, when Hudson 
in the "Half -Moon" sailed past it upon the 
voyage of discovery up the magnificent river 
which bears his name. It was called "The 
Plaine before the Fort," and on it were held 
mihtary parades, faks, Indian treaties, civic 
receptions, Christmas, Paas, and Pinkster fes- 
tivals, baU games, and bm-ghers' meetings. 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBEBSHIP 15 

It witnessed Stuyvesant's reluctant surrender 
of the Fort and Province to the Enghsh under 
Nicolls, the lowering of the Dutch flag, and the 
hoisting for the first time of the red-cross ban- 
ner of St. George. 

Under Enghsh rule it was used for the same 
purposes ; the military displays were larger, the 
fairs greater and more numerous. The Dutch 
festivals were not only kept up, but were sup- 
plemented by others on the bii'thdays of the 
Enghsh sovereigns and those of their royal in- 
fants. Crowds stood there to hear the pro- 
claiming by sound of trumpet of every new 
Governor on his taking command of his Prov- 
ince, and to see the Speaker and the Assembly 
of the Province go in stately procession to the 
Fort, either to congratulate his Excellency on 
his accession, or on the opening of the Provin- 
cial Legislature to bear to him their formal 
address in answer to his speech from the 
throne ; the Speaker in his wig and robes, pre- 
ceded by the sergeant-at-arms in laced cocked 
hat and small clothes, girt with a sword, and 
bearing aloft the mace richly gilded, sur- 
mounted by a royal crown. 

In March, 1733, prompted by gentlemen in 



16 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

its neighborhood, then and for a century later 
the court, or fashionable end, of New- York, the 
city authorities took steps to improve the 
open space, and, in their own words, 

'^ Besolved, That this Corporation will lease 
a piece of ground lying at the lower end of 
Broadway fronting to the Fort, to some of the 
inhabitants of the said Broadway, in order to 
be inclosed to make a Bowhng-Green thereof, 
with walks therein, for the beauty and orna- 
ment of the said street, as well as for the 
recreation and delight of the inhabitants of 
the City, leaving the street on each side 
thereof fifty feet in breadth, under such cov- 
enants and restrictions, as to the court shall 
seem expedient." 

In April, 1733, the mayor, Robert Lurting, 
Aldermen Van Gelde and PhiHpse, and Mr. de 
Peyster, or any three of them, were appointed 
a committee "to lay out the ground at the 
lower end of Broadway near the Fort for a 
bowling-green," and it was ordered "that the 
same be leased to Mr. John Chambers, Mr. 
Peter Bayard, and Mr. Peter Jay, for the term 
of eleven years, for the use aforesaid, at the 
annual rent of a pepper corn." This com- 



CERTIFICATE OF 3IEMBERSHIP 17 

mittee inclosed it with a wooden fence, and 
laid it out accordingly. For some reason the 
lease was not given; but in the next year, 
1734, a lease was duly executed to Mr. John 
Chambers, Mr. Peter Bayard, and Mr. John 
Roosevelt, for a bowhng-green only, at the 
same rent for ten years; and these same 
gentlemen, in 1742, apphed for, and obtained, 
a renewal of the lease for a further term of 
eleven years from the expiration thereof, at 
a rent of twenty shilhngs per annum. 

Such was the origin of the Bowling-Green, 
the first public square in New- York. 

Few of the thousands upon thousands who 
pass that square now, even of those who see 
it daily, know, or realize, that the ancient iron 
railing upon a discolored stone base, which 
still surrounds the beautiful green oval in its 
centre, filled with trees and flowers, is one of 
the very few historic remains of the old colonial 
city still left to metropohtan New- York. That 
fence and its base was erected by the city cor- 
poration in 1771, — a hundred and twenty-one 
years ago, — pursuant to a resolution unani- 
mously passed to fence in "the green before 
his Majesty's Fort" with "iron rails and a 



18 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

stone foundation agreeable to a plan now 
exhibited to this Board, and have contracted 
with Messrs. Richard Sharpe and others for 
completing the same for the consideration of 
*£800" (two thousand dollars). 

The object was to provide a fit surrounding 
for the gilt equestrian statue of Kjng George 
III., which the Assembly of New- York had 
voted to erect as an expression of the thanks 
of the people of the Province for the repeal of 
the Stamp Act, the arrival of which from Eng- 
land was then daily expected; and which the 
Governor, Council, and Assembly had asked 
the city's permission to place in the centre of 
the Bowling-Green. Five years later, on the 
evening of the 9th of July, 1776, in the morn- 
ing of which day the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence had been for the first time pubhcly read 
in the Park, on the spot now occupied by the 
fountain in front of the City Hall, the statue 
was torn down by a mob and broken to pieces, 
its pedestal being left standing. Yery large 
parts of the lead in which it was cast, and the 
marble slab on which the horse stood, are now 
in the possession of the New- York Historical 

* In New- York currency. 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 19 

Society. Other parts of it were carried to 
Connecticut, where the lead was run into mus- 
ket-balls, to be used a little later against the 
troops of that same king, whose personal 
policy in England absolutely forced his Ameri- 
can people into that rebellion which termi- 
nated in a successful Revolution. Long may 
the mute witness of this event remain un- 
touched in New- York's ancient Bowling-Grreen! 
Of the six compartments above the parch- 
ment scroll, the first two on the right of the 
design show respectively the " Stadt-Huys," 
the first municipal edifice on Manhattan Island, 
and the first coat of arms granted by the 
authorities in Holland to their new city in 
America. The view of the former is taken 
from a pencil sketch made in 1679 by the 
Labadist missionaries Bankers and Sluyter, 
who visited New Amsterdam in that year. It 
was found in the manuscript journal of thek 
mission by the late Hon. Henry C. Murphy, 
who bought that document in Holland when 
minister to The Hague, translated it, and pub- 
lished it with this, and all its other illustrations 
reproduced, for the Long Island Historical So- 
ciety, of which he was the President. It was 



20 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

built of stone on Pearl Street, facing the East 
River, at tlie head of what was, and still is, 
Coenties Shp. It was guarded in front by one 
of the "rondeels," or half -moon batteries, used 
in the fortification of cities at that day. This 
was also of stone, and mounted three "culver- 
ins," which are seen in the picture. The 
"Stadt-Huys" itself was erected in 1642 
by Governor Kieft, at the joint expense of 
the West India Company and citizens who 
subscribed for the purpose, upon land be- 
longing to the Company, for a hotel, and 
was then, it is beheved, the largest building 
in the city. 

In the troubled times of Stuyvesant's admin- 
istration, meetings of burghers, both great and 
small, were held in it to try to obtain more 
liberty of municipal action than that zealous 
supporter of the West India Company was 
inclined to allow. The burgomaster and 
schepens in 1653 addressed the West India 
Company, stating that Stuyvesant's instruc- 
tions were too nari'ow, and asked for munici- 
pal institutions and powers Hke those of old 
Amsterdam, ai^d among them a Stadt-Huys, or 
City Hall, and a seal separate from that of the 



GEBTIFIGATE OF MEMBERSHIP 21 

Province of New Netherland. The directors 
answered, granting them the Stadt-Huys, and 
saying that they had "decreed that a seal for 
the City of New Amsterdam should be pre- 
pared and forwarded." This seal contained 
the first coat of arms of this city, which was 
a modification of the coat of the city of old 
Amsterdam, changed, however, in tinctui*es 
and in the crest. These arms are depicted 
in the second of the upper compartments in 
their correct heraldic colors, from an engrav- 
ing of them in Van der Donck's New Nether- 
land of 1656, three years only after they had 
been granted by the authorities in Holland. 
The seal on which they appeared also con- 
tained above them the monogram of the Dutch 
West India Company under a short mantling; 
but as this was no part whatever of the coat 
of arms, it has not, of coui'se, been reproduced. 
These arms are thus blazoned : 

Shield: Argent, on a pale sable, three crosses 
saltire argent, hettveen tivo adosses 
in pale sahle. 

Ceest: On a wreatJi of the colors, a heaver 
proper, facing to the right. 



22 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

In the arms of old Amsterdam the shield is : 
Gules, on a pale sable, three crosses saltire 
argent, without adosses ; and the crest is the 
Dutch Hon rampant. 

In both shields the chief charge, the pale 
sable with three crosses saltire argent, is the 
same, but the color, gules (red), of the old shield 
was changed to argent (white), in the new one, 
and the two adosses (sable) were added. The 
crest was changed from the lion rampant of 
Holland to a beaver in his natural color, the 
beaver being the most valuable production of 
New Netherland at that time. No motto was 
given, but the legend on the seal was, "Sigil- 
lum Amstelodamensis in Novo Belgio." In this 
connection it may be stated that the coat of 
arms on the seal of the Province of New Neth- 
erland, from which, as above stated, the people 
of New Amsterdam asked for a separate one 
for their city, was granted by the States-Glen- 
eral of HoUand in 1623, and is thus blazoned : 

Shield : Argent, a heaver proper in bend dexter, 
Ceest: a Coimfs coronet, or* 

* It was no herald's fancy that gave to the Pro\dnce of New 
Netherland the coat of arms of a Count (not an Earl, as some- 
times stated). It was simply the heraldic expression of the sei- 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 23 

The legend was "Sigillum Novi Belgii" — in 
English, the Seal of New Netherland. 

The next two compartments contain respec- 
tively the second City Hall, built under Eng- 
lish rule in 1700, and the arms granted to 
New- York by its Ducal Proprietor as King of 
England in 1686, a short time after he had 
succeeded to the throne. The growth of the 
city northward, the increase of the pubhc 
business, and the bad condition of the old 
Stadt-Huys together compelled the city cor- 
poration to erect a new City Hall. It first 
voted to do so in 1696, but civic action was 
then, as now, a slow matter, and it was not 
till the mayoralty of Johannes de Peyster, 
in 1698, that it was begun, and it was com- 
pleted in 1700, in the mayoralty of David 
Provoost, the old Stadt-Huys having been 
sold in August, 1699, to John Rodman for 

gnorial jurisdiction and powers under the Roman-Dutch law of 
the kind of fief which the charter of 1621 and its amendments of 
1623 legally vested in the Dutch West India Company over their 
new province in America, as its local sovereign — jurisdiction 
and powers similar in degree to those of the old ''Counts of 
Holland" in the Dutch "Countship of Holland." This subject 
is very ably stated in Mr. Robert Ludlow Fowler's learned 
introduction to the GroUer Club's reprint of Bradford's Laws 
of New- York of 1694, written since this report was made. 



24 



ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 



£920 (about $2300) to furnisli a part of 
its cost. It contained, in addition to the city 
offices, the assembly-chamber of the Province 
and the court-room of the Supreme Court. 
By these bodies and the minor courts and 
the city government was it occupied during 
the Enghsh rule to the end of 1783, and by 
the same bodies under the State of New-York 
as an independent sovereignty until 1788, 
when by adopting the new Constitution in 
July of that year, New- York entered the new 
confederation and became one of the United 
States of America. The city corporation then 
altered and enlarged the building in time for 
the meeting of the first Congress and the in- 
auguration of constitutional government in 
the United States, and of Washington as 
President, in the spring of 1789. Called 
"Federal Hall" during its occupation by Con- 
gress, after the removal of that body to Phila- 
delphia, late in 1790, it became again the City 
Hall, and continued to be the home of the city 
government till 1811, when to the indelible dis- 
grace of the city it was sold and demolished, 
the new City Hall, the present one, being then 
on the eve of completion. It ought to have 



CEBTIFIGATE OF MEMBEBSHIP 25 

been preserved with the greatest care and 
reverence, as the cradle, not only of parha- 
mentary hberty and English law in New- York, 
but of constitutional government in the United 
States of America, as well as the scene of the 
first great President's inauguration. Our 
younger sister cities, Boston and Philadelphia, 
have jealously preserved and sacredly guarded 
their colonial civic edifices, while New- York 
has permitted hers to be destroyed — a sacri- 
fice to false economy. 

The coat of arms shown in the adjoining 
compartment was granted, as has been stated, 
by King James II. to the city a few months 
after he ascended the Enghsh throne. It was 
engraved on a new seal, which was dehvered 
with much formality by the governor, in the 
king's name, to the mayor, aldermen, and com- 
monalty, on the 24th of July, 1686, and duly 
accepted by them. There was no motto, but 
the legend on the seal is "Sigillum civitatis 
Novi Bboraci," in the contracted form of 
"SigiU. civitat. Novi Eborac." — in English, 
" Seal of the City of New- York." These arms 
are shown depicted in their correct heraldic 
tinctures, or colors. They are thus blazoned : 



26 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

Shield: Argent, charged with the four sails of a 
windmill proper; hetiveen their outer 
ends, two beavers proper, one in chief 
and one in base, and two flour-barrels 
proper, in fess, one on each side. 

Crest : A royal crown, or, lined gules. 

These arms have remained unchanged, and 
are the coat of arms of the city of New- York 
to-day; the crest, however, was altered, in 
1784, to a bald eagle proper, rising from a 
demi-terrestrial globe, which was adopted, in 
place of the crown, from the original State 
arms of the State of New- York. 

The changes on this shield denote the source 
of the commercial supremacy of New- York. 
That supremacy grew out of a law prohibiting 
the bolting of flour outside of the city limits 
between the years 1678 and 1694, which gave 
to its people a monopoly of the export trade in 
breadstuffs and biscuits. This, with export of 
furs, really made the City of New- York the 
centre of the trade of America, a proud posi- 
tion she will ever retain. 

With the shght modification above stated 
these ancient arms have been borne by our 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 27 

city continuously from the reign of the last 
Stuart king of New- York to the close of the 
rule of Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third 
President of the United States of America, 
the long period of two hundred and six years. 
May they ever so remain ! 

Although no part, heraldically, of the city 
arms, the supporters have been introduced on 
account of their interest. Supporters are 
merely ornaments of shields or escutcheons, 
which alone show the arms of an individual, 
city, state, or nation. They are added some- 
times (for thousands of coats of arms have 
none) simply to give greater effect to the 
shields they support. 

Those added to the city arms are : on the 
dexter, or right, side of the sliield, a sailor in 
the dress and cap of two centuries ago, hold- 
ing in his right hand a ship's sounding-hne ; 
and on its sinister, or left, side, an Indian chief 
in his feathered finery, holding in his left hand 
a stringed bow. The former was said to be in 
honor of King James, for besides being Lord 
Proprietor of New- York as Duke of York, he 
was also at the same time Lord High Admiral 
of England (and a naval officer of abihty), and 



28 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY 

as such Commander-in-Chief of all EngMsh 
sailors, as well those of the merchant service 
as those of the Eoyal Navy; the latter com- 
memorated the native inhabitants and posses- 
sors of his Province in America. 

In the fifth compartment is a view of the 
present City Hall, founded in 1803 and com- 
pleted in 1812. It is placed with its predeces- 
sors, not only as one of the three, and on 
account of the beauty and purity of its archi- 
tecture, but also for preservation; for it has 
been seriously proposed to tear it down, to 
erect a larger edifice on the same site — a piece 
of vandahsm that may yet be carried into 
effect. Its facades are in the beautiful style 
of Inigo Jones, after that of the banqueting- 
hall of the Palace of Whitehall in London. 
The cupola in the view is the original one, 
burnt by the careless use of fireworks in 1858, 
on the occasion of the celebration of the lay- 
ing of the first Atlantic cable in that year, not 
the present inferior one which replaced it. 
Mayor Edward Livingston laid its corner- 
stone on the 26th of May, 1803, at its south- 
east corner. And on the 4th of July, 1811, 
although not quite finished. Mayor DeWitt 



CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 29 

Clinton and the common council celebrated 
the day in their new hall. Its architect was 
John McComb, a native New-Yorker, who was 
also the architect at the same time of Wash- 
ington Hall, the birthplace of this Society, as 
stated above. He was born in New- York, 
October 17, 1763, and died in the same city on 
the 25th of May, 1853, at the good old age of 
ninety years. 

Such is the design for a new Certificate of 
Membership, or Diploma, and the reasons for, 
and explanation of, the illustrations of the 
same, which your committee venture to hope 
may meet with the approbation of their breth- 
ren of the Society. 

It is the design of the committee themselves, 
but the execution of the ornamental and 
heraldic portion is by Mr. Rudolph B. Irm- 
traut, and that of the historic views and places 
is by the eminent Mr. Joseph Keppler, both 
weU-known artists in this city. 

Edwaed F. de Lancey, \ Committee 
Smith E. Lane, > on 

HowLAND Pell, ) Certificate. 

December 1, 1892. 



